50 years on and still hula-hooping

Now aged 73 and living in Brambledown, Laleham, she proved she was just as happy-go-lucky as she was then, by demonstrating her hula-hooping skills on the couple's golden wedding anniversary.

When Ann and John Betteridge married at St Mary's Church in Stanwell 50 years ago, hula-hooping was all the craze.

And even though Ann had never done the hula before, she was game for a laugh and had a go in her wedding dress for a national newspaper to capture the trend in a photo.

Now aged 73 and living in Brambledown, Laleham, she proved she was just as happy-go-lucky as she was then, by demonstrating her hula-hooping skills on the couple's golden wedding anniversary.

Ann and John, 75, who met at a ballroom dancing group and honeymooned in Devon, celebrated their big day on Saturday October 4 at the Savill Court Hotel in Windsor Great Park and as a surprise their daughter, Katie Pawsey, 40, from Suffolk, provided the hula-hoop.

She said: "It's hard to take it in, looking at the old photograph 50 years later, you wonder where all the years have gone."

Recalling the hula-hoop moment half a decade ago, Ann said a photographer from Englefield Green had found her a few days before the wedding and asked her if she would mind having a go in her wedding dress.

And after she agreed and had a few tries, the photographer said he would come to the reception at Water Board Hall in Billet Road, Staines, to take a picture of her in her white satin and lace dress.

She said: "I had forgotten it was going to be done and when he turned up I didn't know if it would work in my dress, but it did."

Ann added that she had also followed up the event by hula-hooping on their 25th anniversary.

The couple, who also have a son, Tim, 42, from Thorpe, said the secret to their long marriage was 'patience'.

John said: "There is no magic element, it's like everything else, it has to be worked at. The anniversary has come at a good time because this year Katie had our first grandson, Fynn, who is five months."